Onyinkwa Onyakundi
This here is nominated Senator Hon. Milly Omanga. The venue is Kisii School, and the occasion is the Governor’s end year dinner gala. Now, we have had a long, civil and sober debate about this picture on a Whatsapp group comprised of residents of Kisii County. Besides the sobriety and decorum with which every opinion and view was presented, i found it interesting that while the overall verdict was that her dressing was not appropriate for her age, for her position and for the occasion, majority of those who saw nothing wrong with her dressing were men, while the majority of those who held the view that she was dressed inappropriately were women.
This had me wondering why if the same discussion was had here on Facebook, most of the ladies would adopt the ‘my dress my choice’ mode, the views would be presented in a ‘si tafadhali’ tone and the men would likely reserve their opinions. Could it be that the relative privacy that Whatsapp affords people lets them ‘fungua roho’ in a manner that brings out their deep down honest opinions on such a subject without either attempting to play to the gallery, or fearing the backlash from the ‘si tafadhali’ group? Could it be that the beliefs and convictions of the average Kisii woman is markedly different from that of the average Kenyan woman on social media? Can the militant views of the feminist Kenyan woman on Facebook be considered as representative of the overall views of Kenyan women everywhere?
